Oh, Christmas Tree

This year held a couple of "firsts" for us.  Christmas tree permits were now available to purchase ONLINE!  No more standing in line at 4am at Soldier Hollow!  Has the USFS finally reached the 21st century?  They turned it over to recreation.gov.  Boom, permit within a minute.  Yes, I love technology!

Another first was allowing children to come with us.  Typically, we use it as a excuse for a "date".   But they all had the day off school and Dallin was begging to go!  We thought that since there wasn't much snow, it would be easy for him.  It turned out to only be partially a mistake.  He started complaining after 10 minutes, but by then we were only 5 minutes away anyway.  Once we got to the sweet spot and started wandering around for the perfect tree, he got adventurous and into the spirit of it all!  It was kind of fun.  

Our last "first" was cutting the tree down by hand!  The family chainsaw was out of commission, so we took our regular saw.  It was so light and easy to carry in a backpack!  And with Bevan's sweet cutting skills, the tree was down in less than a minute anyway.  I don't think we're going to use a chainsaw again.  The poor tree was so starved for water from the exceedingly dry summer, it was light as a feather!  Good thing it gets to spend the last month of it's life in a pot of water.  Drink up!  It's not as tall as year's past, so I didn't have a lot of extra branches for a wreath.  It turns out our yard is full of evergreens.  Alpine fir boughs got paired with juniper, spruce, and yews.  Let Christmas begin!

#givethanks

 I am so grateful for this time of year!  It's starting to snow, the landscaping season is wrapping up, and it's time for Thanksgiving!  Even though it's our year to celebrate with Bevan's family, we were able to spend time with both families.  We went up to the cabin on Wednesday where there was food, warmth, and cousins to play with!  

We drove down to American Fork on Thursday where Beverly and Lloyd prepared a TON of food.  The toys were moved downstairs so that kept the kids somewhat occupied.  It was so nice to visit with Bryan and Rebecca and catch up with their lives.  

We trekked back to the cabin on Friday for the after-party.  There wasn't any snow for sledding, although Paige and Meg tried to sled.  The "Big Loop" was nice and dry and Vanessa let me tag along with her once.  Other than that, we just hung out, ate leftovers, worked on puzzles, and spent black friday shopping on our phones.  How times have changed!  I definitely don't miss middle-of-the-night shopping excursions to Park City.  It's a sign I'm getting old!

I didn't do daily social media posts of what I'm thankful for, like we were supposed to, but here are a few...

my health.  It's no secret it's rough getting old... and I'm not even that old!  Sure my knees are rickety and my body doesn't bounce as well as it used to, but I've been pretty blessed. If anyone out there knows the secret to eternal youth, please pass it along!

my house.  I'm sure glad we found our house when we did.  I can't believe it's been 10 years!  Sure, it has it's quirks, but overall, been perfect for our growing family.  I love that Bevan has a garage to park in the winter time, I love that it also fits all our bikes and skis.  I've actually come to appreciate it's limited storage.  It keeps us from accumulating too much junk and makes us evaluate what's really important.

my kids.  There are no words to describe my love for this amazing family.  They all have their different qualities, which I love them for.  Even Dallin has his tender moments and is starting to mellow out a little.  Anna is now 10 and growing more responsible every day.  Drew is a smart little preschooler.  Tommy always has so much to say, even though you can't understand him that well.  I can't believe my baby is 3!

my Bevan.  We're coming up on 14 years being married!  Where has the time gone?  He constantly reminds me to do the "right" thing and keeps the entire family in check.  He is often found doing the dishes or reading to the kids.  We still tag-team running, biking, or skiing, but someday we'll do them together again.  

my job.  I never thought I'd still be working with 4 kids.  I always wondered how working moms survived.  I still don't know how they survive!  I love making places more beautiful and being able to KEEP them beautiful.  We've finished up some amazing projects this year and already have a full summer booked out for next year!

my testimony.  I still can't believe that I lucked out being on earth at this time.  We have such an amazing country that has supported the restoration of the gospel.  I can't imagine my life without it.  I've been pulled and stretched in every way possibly lately, but being grounded in something so simple and beautiful has made it easier to focus on the important things.

Birthday Week!

 This is the best week of the year!  Bevan, Drew, Tommy, and Anna all have birthdays!  We had so much fun.  Bevan and I went out to a peaceful dinner with Beverly and Lloyd on Tuesday, followed by his favorite cake with the Jarvises, who were also watching our kids.  That was the sweat end of our deal.

For the kids' birthdays, we spent Saturday morning at Hang Time Adventure Park!  We've actually never been to a trampoline park and the kids loved it!  They wanted to spend the rest of the day in there, and we probably could've with the few inattentive teenagers running the place.  They had a foam pit, a trapeze, ninja course, zipline, dodgeball, and a massive trampoline area!  I just had to steal a few jumps.  It didn't disappoint.  I forgot what a workout it is!  We headed for Pizza Pie Cafe for lunch with Grandma and Grandpa Hawkins.  I was pleasantly surprised it was still open and thriving.  Everyone got what they wanted.  We went back to American Fork to open presents, play and eat cupcakes.  We also watched the BYU football game.  I am so glad they're playing so well, even if they are playing easy teams. 

On Sunday, we had yet another cake with cousins at Grandma and Grandpa Ackerson's house.  We love our cousins so much!  They made Anna feel special, which was extra important because she couldn't have her regular "friend party" this year.  At least I could make her favorite cake, with Grandma's special chocolate frosting.